Watch Ernest Saves Christmas For Free

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Thanks for the memories!

Nice effects though.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Ernest Saves Christmas is a good natured and fun holiday movie about Ernest P. Worell helping an aging Santa Claus to find his successor before it's too late. Santa Claus is getting older and is forgetting such important things like who's naughty, and who's nice, and who asked a toy truck, etc. These of course are very important things for Santa to have stored in his memory. So in order to keep Christmas going at a rapid pace, Santa sets his sights on Joe Carruthers (a children's ) to take over the very important job. Problem is that Joe is so busy with his acting career that each time Santa tries to tell him about the gig, he either leaves in a rush thanks to his money hungry agent, or doesn't believe that what Santa is saying is real. That's where Ernest and a runaway teenage girl named Harmony come into play. They go on a journey with Santa to make Joe the new Santa Claus thereby saving Christmas.I really enjoyed this Ernest film. It isn't as dumb and pointless as some of the other Ernest films done before and after, it has a really nice message and is a heart warming Christmas movie. Jim Varney does his usual Ernest part to perfection and I really liked the dynamic between him, Noelle Parker (Harmony) and Douglas Seale (Santa Claus). You can see that they really believe in Santa eventually and come to care about him and saving Christmas. There are some laughs in this as well, I always loved when Ernest would dress up as the old woman with the wig and neck brace. Pretty solid comedic moments in this one for sureI highly recommend anyone looking for a good Christmas movie to see 'Ernest Saves Christmas'. Douglas Seale may be the most realistic Santa Claus I've seen in more recent Christmas movies. He has a classic look to him in this film that I love, it adds to the story wonderfully. It isn't the huge belly/bright white beard look, it's a more old styled Santa Claus character which was refreshing to see. Check it out!7/10

The opening of this movie is quite clever. Two airline passengers, one of whom is quite obviously Santa Claus, a fact of which the other man is totally unaware, are discussing business logistics related to the upcoming Xmas crunch. Priceless! Unfortunately, then Jim Varney as Ernest shows up to wreck everything. The plot is familiar to anybody who watched the Flintstones Xmas episode (which is everybody in the free world as far as I know) - Santa can't make his deliveries on Xmas eve and some unqualified idiot has to pitch in. Ernest does this here, and the results leave everything to be desired in the way of story originality and comic staging and timing. The slapstick is the whole point of the exercise and here it is very sloppy and unconvincing. Whoever saw Varney as a physical comedian needs an eye exam. He just can't do the job very well. And if this movie fails as slapstick it fails period, since there is not much else here to watch. Avoid.

How one responds to the character of Ernest P. Worrell and his feature film vehicles may depend on personal taste. If you enjoy the shtick of the late Jim Varney in this role, you may very well enjoy the movie. It goes without saying that it's going to be awfully silly at times, and it does get rather repetitive as it plays out, but there's still a fair amount of charm and good intentions to the material. Ernest in this case is a good hearted cab driver who makes the acquaintance of Saint Nick, wonderfully played by Douglas Seale. Saint Nick now realizes it's time for another person to take on the persona and perform the duties required, and he believes that person is local children's show host Joe Carruthers (Oliver Clark). Assorted wacky escapades, including an out of control sleigh ride, an airport hanger full of reindeer, and Ernest donning various disguises and pulling various scams, occur along the way. Varney is as enthusiastic and upbeat as ever, and receives decent support from the other actors, especially Seale and Clark. Robert Lesser is amusing as the stereotypically sleazy agent, and the ever delightful Billie Bird can be seen in one of her sweet old lady roles (she and her contemporary Frances Bay really cornered the market on this sort of thing). The screenplay also works into the story, among more traditional Christmas themes, the idea that people shouldn't be too quick to think cynically, or too quick to judge someone, and learn to trust them, as well as the idea of regaining a degree of childhood innocence; this is all applied to the "little girl lost" character of "Harmony" appealingly played by Noelle Parker. One of the nicest parts is when a businessmen (from Canada!) had declared to Santa that if anything he wanted to see snow for Christmas, and gets his wish. Some of the comedy really is too much at times, for example the reindeer scenes with some shameless goofy mugging (not to mention eyeball gags) from Gailard Sartain and Bill Byrge. The business with the horror film within the film may also be seen as questionable; try explaining it to the younger kids, even if it's deliberately designed as being very low rent and cheesy. It's interesting to see that the composer is the aptly named Mark Snow, who went on to be the in-house composer on 'The X-Files'. Overall, a reasonably engaging bit of holiday fare, even if just for nostalgic reasons for those who saw it at a younger age back in '88. Six out of 10.

This movie started off great; the first 30 minutes are very funny and clever with some interesting characters. That's the good news. The bad news is that the film then gets too repetitive and then it gets downright stupid. What we wind up getting is a Santa Claus with "magical" powers with a lot of New Age baloney thrown in the mix. It's just ridiculous and hardly the kind of "Christmas movie" I would expect from Jim Varney's "Ernest."To be fair, it still had a decent amount of laughs and is profanity-free but just not a film I could recommend.